I'm baaaa-aaack!

Wow, I've been absent before, but never for this long. This is embarrassing but it was either (a) reclaim my blog and do some 'splainin, or (b) start a new blog and pretend the other one never existed only to eventually abandon two blogs and take up badly-needed web addresses. If blogs were children, I could eventually become the parental equivalent of an NBA player...just keep makin' em, and leavin' em to fend for themselves.

The reasons I am back are threefold: (1) peer and family pressure (2) New Year's rez, and (3) I can say things on here that I can't say in my newspaper column. Take for instance, the comment about NBA players.

Since September of 2009, I have been a columnist for The Smithville Times, and that has given me the outlet I needed to express myself via the written word but there's only so much I can say about myself and my family in a community publication. I already offer so much information about us that I've had to hire Lifelock to protect our identities from being stolen. (However, just in case the column doesn't get it done, there's always Facebook -- the go-to website that meets your stalking, identity-stealing, and spamming needs all in one location.)

I need a plan I can live with. Something that allows me to post to the blog in reasonable intervals without burning me out. Something that allows me to say what needs to be said without self-censoring.

I think the answer lies in brevity. From now on, if I have something interesting to share that exceeds the length acceptable for a Facebook status, I shall turn to this blog to meet that need. Similarly, if I make an observation that may upset the general Facebook population, I shall use this forum. This is where you will find the thoughts that may not be Facebook appropriate but are not so raw that they need to be expressed to select people via text. I'm not talking vulgarity here, just honesty.

Let's start with some things that have been weighing heavily on me over the past 24 hours in terms of sheer stupidity:

1. CNN is full of pansy sheep. I can't believe they are no longer allowing the use of words like "target" or "crosshairs" or the like in the name of "not inflaming" people. Don't get me wrong, it's their right to do that because they are not a branch of the government and they can run their network however they want, but it's stupid and laughable. No wonder they have no viewers. (Just so you know, I cringe every time I hear Fox anchors use the phrase "homicide bomber" instead of "suicide bomber". That's stupid too.)

2. I don't know how many of you will admit to watching "Teen Mom" or "Teen Mom 2", but some of you have to be. (The show has great ratings so you know who you are!) Anyway, I believe the moral of last night's episode is this: If you are living with the parents of your Baby Daddy and have no other prospects standing between yourself and homelessness, do not (I repeat, DO NOT) change your Facebook status to "In a relationship" when the "relationship" is clearly not with the Baby Daddy. That is failure on a Nancy Pelosi level.

Whew. I feel better now, don't you?

By the way, I'll update photos soon. We don't even have some of the pets shown anymore, and we now have a new one.

We still have both of the kids but they look slightly different.